Electric bikes bring speed — and real risk. Without training, helmets on heads, and a clear understanding of traffic rules, we’re asking children to make adult decisions at dangerous speeds.
Electric bikes bring speed — and real risk. Without training, helmets on heads, and a clear understanding of traffic rules, we’re asking children to make adult decisions at dangerous speeds. Credit: Frank DiMarco / Noozhawk photo

If you were fortunate enough to attend the Santa Barbara City College Emergency Medical Technician course, you learned a lot very quickly.

The program was taught over the years by a remarkable group of emergency room nurses, like Susie Thieleman R.N., and firefighter paramedics, including now-Fire Chief Chris Mailes and Jack Franklin.

One lesson in particular stuck: Every vehicle crash involves three collisions. First, the vehicles hit each other or a wall. Second, your body hits the airbag or dash. Third — and the only one that truly counts — your brain hits the inside of your skull.

Contrary to popular belief, your cerebral cortex is not that hard, gray, formaldehyde-infused specimen that you might have touched in anatomy class.

Your living cortex has a gel-like consistency, often described as similar to soft tofu.

You might wonder why the military, with all its unlimited research and financial resources, or the NFL, with its mounting cases of repeat brain trauma (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), can’t make a good helmet?

It’s almost impossible … because we’re dealing with what is properly called a “deceleration injury.”

If the brain decelerates abruptly, it will impact the inside of the skull and no amount of outside cushioning can prevent it (shaken baby syndrome is another example of back-and-forth, deceleration injury).

Single-use bike helmets do a pretty good job of mitigating head injuries at relatively low bike speeds.

However, as good as motorcycle, NFL and military helmets are, the cynical response of a rehabilitation nurse, whose patients are mostly spinally injured motorcycle crash victims, is unforgettable: “The helmet is just there to help identify the remains.”

And now we get to the heart of the matter: teenagers driving in traffic with “e-bikes” at motorcycle speeds.

I recently watched two young girls on an e-bike, maybe 14 years old, helmets hanging on the handlebars, barreling down Hollister Avenue toward San Marcos High School and cut across three traffic lanes, in front of a large pickup truck with maybe 10 yards for the driver to react.

Fortunately, the driver did react and anticipated their move, even though the girls did not signal.

We’re letting pre-teens and teens drive in traffic at motorcycle speeds. How many times is that going to happen before a tragedy occurs?

We’re letting pre-teens and teens drive in traffic at motorcycle speeds. How many times is that going to happen before a tragedy occurs?

No testosterone-amped 15 year old can resist the exhilaration of speed and coolness … and promise parents to go slow, always wear their helmets and make adult judgments in the face of the thrill of motorcycle acceleration in traffic.

That’s why we call them children.

I see two avenues to mitigate this oncoming tragedy, possible debilitating spinal/brain injury and potential loss of life: parents and schools.

Parents can require their children to learn the California Vehicle Code, pass the tests and teach them the skills of hand signaling, changing lanes, and how to drive defensively in traffic.

Beginning in September, schools can require all students who ride an e-bike to school to complete a new “E-Bike Driver’s Education Course.”